I can bet Maimuna Anyene, a human resources manager at United Technologies Corp. in West Hartford, Connecticut, was more than excited about her upcoming trip to Nigeria. 

Yes, you can have perfection.

You say you haven’t gotten around to trying a MannaEXPRESS recipe yet? Well, let this be the month—for perfection. If I could summarize all the glory of summer in one sublime dish, it would be Summer Pasta. Easy, fresh, delicious, and doesn’t even heat up the kitchen. It uses everyone’s favorite summer ingredients: juicy red ripe tomatoes, fresh basil, mozzarella cheese, garlic, and olive oil. Have I whetted your taste buds yet?

We cooked this dish in Tuscany—that fairytale part of Italy of rolling hills interspersed with olive groves and vineyards around tile-roofed, stucco, and ochre-colored villas and castellos. We cooked it there but discovered it here years ago after a famous New York chef was asked what dish he would eat on returning to his native Italy. His answer: Summer Pasta.

By Mrs. Happy

Mrs. Happy sheepishly admits that she watched a few R-rated movies in the past, though she will no longer watch films of any rating that have significant sexual content.

Anywaaaay…back in the day, Mr. and Mrs. Happy would be watching a movie together, and there would be the inevitable sex scene. Mrs. Happy would watch incredulously as a man and woman flailed away in simulated sex.

“That doesn’t work!” she’d exclaim to Mr. Happy. And sure enough, the depictions of sex she saw onscreen were almost guaranteed not to be satisfying to the woman. The position wasn’t right, the angle was off, the speed wasn’t gonna get her there…well. It is no surprise to Mrs. Happy that the vast majority of film directors are men. And clearly, like much of the rest of humanity, they don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to sex.

Most times, people honor their fathers or the special men in their lives as a result of the positive impact they made on them. I remember my dad for his gentleness, his love for peace and family. He was known to stick his neck out to a fault for family and friends. Anytime there is as little as a discord-related hiccup in the family today, nine out to 10 times someone will say, “If your dad was alive, he would have prevented it.”

Dessert: sweet, delicious, immoderate, celebratory. Can you imagine a birthday, wedding, church supper, or special occasion without it? Then why not try a dessert that is totally over the top. It is my German grandmother’s Blitz Torte, a sublime confection of meringue, cake, custard filling, and almonds that is as delectable as it is beautiful. Are you sufficiently tempted?